Object Story: Decorated Document Box

At first glance you might not realize that this box is made of tin! The production of tinware in America began around 1750, when British immigrants set up a tinware workshop in Berlin, Connecticut. Tinware, sometimes called “tôleware” from the French word for sheet metal, refers to objects made from thin sheets of iron coated in tin. The people who make tinware objects are called tinsmiths. Tin plate sheets, the basic materials needed to make tinware, were not imported into the United States until the twentieth century because the proper equipment to make the large, thin pieces of coated metal did not exist before then.

To form sheets of tin into usable objects, tinsmiths shaped the sheets over a mold, soldered any seams, and rolled the edges around a wire to create a smooth finish. The tin sheets could be molded into many different objects including pans, colanders, kettles, coffee pots, pails, cups, plates, horns, boxes, candlesticks, trays, and small trunks like this one.

Some tinware travelled from the maker’s workshop to stores in carts or boats. In order to sell tinware items to people in more locations, tinsmiths hired peddlers to travel around America with a supply of goods for sale. These peddlers traveled in wagons and would often allow buyers to trade other objects for tinware goods.

Many different groups of people were involved in the tinware business. Women, often the daughters or other family members of the men who owned the tinware workshops, helped paint and decorate the goods. By the middle of the 1800s, many German Jewish immigrants were tinware peddlers.

Different styles of painted decoration emerged from these workshops, with some areas even becoming known for particular types of decorative motifs like swags, leaves, or ribbons. Experts who have spent a lot of time studying tinware can often identify the region or even the workshop responsible for a particular piece of tinware by analyzing the painted designs. 

Questions for Discussion

• How might an artist’s background or experience change how they choose to decorate an object?
• Compare a variety of painted boxes in the Fielding Collection. What shapes, designs, or colors stand out most? What seems similar or different from boxes you might see today?
• If you had a plain box, how would you decorate it?